ASRock Z490 Taichi Motherboard - Features
The ASRock Z490 Taichi is a high-end motherboard and continuation of the Taichi family. The latest version features an updated design and supports a much bigger variety of features that make this Taichi the best one yet! ASRock is going all out with a 14 Phase Dr.MOS Power Design which is given power through dual 8-pin connectors. The ASRock Z490 Taichi features four DDR4 DIMM slots that can support up to 4666 MHz (OC+) frequencies and up to 128 GB of capacity. The board has large heatsinks over the VRMs and a Taichi logo embedded real panel I/O plate which looks great.
While the VRM heatsinks are massive with aluminum fin design, there are interconnected with heat pipes to dissipate heat. There's also active cooling in the form of three PWM controlled fans which come with 0dB Silent cooling technology. This means that the fans would only operate under heavy workloads and stay silent under idle scenarios. The entire cooling is part of the XXL Aluminum Alloy design that ASRock has taken years to perfect. With the cooling solution, ASRock claims up to 15C lower temperatures than when the fans are not operating. There are Power and Reset buttons at the bottom next to the Debug LED which is always a great addition to high-end boards.
ASRock Z490 Taichi Features:
- Supports 10th Gen and future generation Intel Core Processors (Socket 1200)
- 15 Phase Dr.MOS Power Design
- Supports DDR4 4666MHz+ (OC)
- 3 PCIe 3.0 x16, 2 PCIe 3.0 x1
- Supports NVIDIA SLI, AMD 3-Way CrossFireX
- Graphics Output Options: HDMI, DisplayPort
- 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec), Nahimic Audio
- 8 SATA3, 2 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3), 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4)
- 1 USB 3.2 Gen2x2 20Gb/s Rear Type-C
- 3 USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gb/s (2 Rear Type-A, 1 Front Type-C)
- 9 USB 3.2 Gen1 (4 Front, 5 Rear)
- Dragon 2.5 Gigabit LAN, Intel Gigabit LAN
- Intel Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax (2.4Gbps) + BT 5.1
Storage options include 8 SATA III ports while expansion includes three PCIe 3.0 x16, two PCIe 3.0 x1, and four M.2 (32 Gb/s) ports. ASRock is also confirming support for PCIe Gen 4.0 on the entirety of its Z490 motherboard lineup which will be available with the launch of Intel's Future 12 Gen CPUs codenamed Rocket Lake. They are expected to launch in late 2020. All four M.2 slots come with heatsinks that are part of the PCB armor which covers the lower half of the motherboard. The PCH heatsink is made up of a brushed aluminum design, same as the I/O cover and features the ASRock Gear logo design etched into it along with a great display of ASRock's Polychrome Sync RGB effects. Underneath the side of the PCB, there's an RGB strip lighting it up which also looks great.
For I/O, ASRock features 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (Type-C), 3 USB 3.2 Gen 2 (2 Type-A Rear + 1 Type-C Front), 9 USB 3.2 Gen 1 (4 front, 5 Rear) ports, Dragon 2.5 Gb / Intel 1Gb Ethernet LAN ports, WiFi 6 (2x antenna ports), 1 HDMI, 1 Display Port 1.4, 1 PS/2 port, 1 SPDIF port, 1 BIOS flashback switch and an HD audio jack that is powered by the Realtek ALC1220 codec plus an ESS SABRE 9218 DAC with WIMA Audio caps (NAHIMIC Audio). The Z490 Taichi will retain at $369.99 US.
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About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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